Triumph Tiger 955i - Rear Shock Removal (2006 cast wheel).

[Tiger-G]

Hi,

I had my rear shock off today, so thought I'd do a quick "how to" to help others. It was a pain in the @ss, getting the lower mount spacer out (which is probably why you're reading this, lol !!), so that's what I've concentrated on. Here we go !! :


Support the bike on the centre stand, and remove the rear wheel for better access.

Remove the lower bush bolt:




Now this is the tricky bit !!   

The lower bush spacer wouldn't budge on my bike, as it's never been off in 8 years. From what I've read, they're a pain in the @ss to get off anyway. They are just such a tight fit. Sooooo.............you can either make a drift and smack it out with a FBH (feckin' big hammer), or you can use some restraint and make a puller.

Now, I love FBH's, but I decided to make a puller. This is what I came up with. I got an old socket (about 8-9mm) and drilled it out wide enough for the bolt to go through (left side illustration) This is what will be pressing against the spacer. I got another old socket (right side illustration), a fair bit bigger this time so that the spacer could pull into it, and I drilled that out to so the bolt would go through. The nut on the right side end is the puller:




I put the puller through the spacer and turned. I had to put some force into the turn, and I didn't think the spacer was moving :




Then there was an almighty clunk, and I hit myself in the face with my hand as the spanner slipped !! 

I thought I'd broken something so took the puller off. The clunk was the spacer moving. It didn't want to move !! :




I put the puller back on, and tightened away. Every time there was a clunk, I knew the spacer had moved a bit. And no, I didn't hit myself in the face any more (you learn your lessons in life, lol) :




I'd got to the point where the spacer couldn't move any further in the socket, so I just added a ring spanner to get more space:




Eventually, I got to this point and the pulling became easier:




As the spacer was moving a bit more freely, I seized my chance to use a FBH and a drift from the other side to finish off the job !!    :

Make sure you put a large cloth, or something like, that under the bike, as the bottom bush has needle rollers in it. If the grease on them doesn't hold them in, they might fall out onto the floor when you remove the shock. The cloth makes sure you catch them all before they run away and hide !!




And out it popped. I was so happy...........even my thumb was pleased !  :




That was the tricky bit over, and no damage done (apart from to my face !). Then it's just a case of taking the seat and side panels and battery box off, taking the two bolts off for the remote adjuster, and removing the top bush bolt. The top bush bolt is really easy, as there's no spacer, so no need to go into detail here. The shock just pulls up through where the battery box was:




Here's the shock off the bike with the bolts and spacer shown:




I gave everything a good clean, I regreased the needle pins and bottom bush, I used some emery cloth on the spacer, greased it and it went in much easier.

Replacement is just a reversal of the removal. Good luck if you're trying it. It took me about 4 hours to do, as I was making it up as I went along. I could do it in a jiffy now  :-)

Cheers,
Graeme.